Chapter 80: Tracing Crystal Stones

By the time Irving logged out of the game and returned to reality, it was already past eight in the morning.

The battle with The Brotherhood of Night Blades had lasted the entire night. Although Irving's mental strength had significantly increased since obtaining the[Evil Source Wand], battling Duncan and the four elders had still left him utterly exhausted.

He had even had a close call with death…

Glancing at the still unconscious Vicky, who had fainted from exhaustion and was still sleeping on the bed, Irving let out a sigh of relief as he noted that some color had returned to her originally pale face.

Once outside of the room, he checked the adjacent guest room only to find Sophia missing.

"Where could she have gone?" Irving wondered, furrowing his brows.

After the battle, Sophia had seemingly vanished. One of the twelve guilds present had been her family's, but Irving had chased all of them away.

Perhaps she'd been taken back by her family then.

After taking a shower, Irving felt some of the fatigue wash away. Holding a cup of coffee, he settled in front of his computer.

[Flowing Light and Dense Realm]was set to open at ten o'clock that night, where large quantities of rare materials and equipment would be available.

He logged into the forum and entered the discussion section.

"Flowing Light and Dense Realm opening soon: Penguin Guild recruiting large number of players! We look forward to your participation, let's challenge and grow together! "

"Wind Thunder Guild is recruiting new players in large numbers! Requirements: awakened profession, at least Level 5, high activity level…"

"Any solo players want to temporarily group up? We'll split the equipment earned in Flowing Light and Dense Realm evenly. If interested, please comment below. "

…

Most of the posts in the trading section were recruitment messages from guilds.

Unlike the early stages of the game, after two rounds of disasters, guild recruitment was no longer open to just anyone. Most guilds had level requirements for players.

Not all players preferred joining guilds, some preferred being solo players or "free players" as they were commonly referred to.

As Irving continued scrolling, he murmured, "Seems like many guilds and some solo players are planning to enter the Flowing Light and Dense Realm." Just as he was about to log out, his eyes fell on an interesting post.

"Buying large quantities of 'Tracing Crystal Stones'! High prices offered, hurry! "

He opened the post.

The content unfolded before his eyes: "We are the Hunter Guild, dedicated to tracking down the 'Public Enemy Number One' in the game. It is our mission to eliminate this threat for the betterment of all players. We have already preliminarily located the approximate position of this player, but we require more 'Tracing Crystal Stones'..."

A bitter smile appeared on Irving's face.

Public Enemy No.1? He had almost forgotten about his own identity…

Ever since returning from the altar last time, Irving had indeed acquired the legendary [Evil Source Wand], but he was also forcibly assigned the identity of "Public Enemy No.1" by the system.

He hadn't expected that there would now be a guild specifically formed to hunt him down.

Despite the righteous tone of eradicating the public enemy for the public's good in the post, anyone who knew better understood the real motivation: the system's lavish rewards of a permanent attribute bonus and a legendary piece of equipment!

The allure was simply too great.

At this moment, Irving also felt a bit of a headache. He had a nagging feeling that this matter was directly related to the snake-woman he had encountered at the altar.

Who exactly was she?

Why did she appear at the altar?

A series of questions circled in Irving's mind. He glanced again at the comments below the post. Although there were many replies, most were inquiries about the "No.1 Player," and no one had offered to sell "Tracing Crystal Stones" yet.

For the majority of players, their current strength was only sufficient to kill some low-level exotic beasts, so the probability of obtaining "Tracing Crystal Stones" was very low.

Irving felt slightly relieved.

Although ever since being bound to the "Public Enemy No.1" identity, a special energy fluctuation would be emitted every 24 hours, this signal was very weak. It would take a large number of "Tracing Crystal Stones" to accurately locate him.

In other words, it was unlikely that anyone would find him in the short term.

However, just as Irving was about to close the post's page, he suddenly noticed a comment from a player: "I have twenty Tracing Crystal Stones! Ready to sell—what's your offer?"

Irving's expression slightly changed.

Each "Tracing Crystal Stone" could receive one signal source, and with twenty stones, it wouldn't just be about locking down his general location anymore.

The most critical point was, where had this player gotten so many "Tracing Crystal Stones"… Was there some special method to obtain them?

Thinking of this, Irving's face gradually darkened. He knew that once the identity of "Public Enemy No.1" was revealed, countless forces would target him. This forcibly bound title by the system was like a ticking time bomb.

After hesitating for a moment, Irving decided to take the initiative. He clicked on the player's profile.

The profile was completely blank, showing no personal information. He then clicked on the private message bar and sent a message: "How much are you selling those twenty Tracing Crystal Stones for?"

He then added: "I'm also searching for the whereabouts of the 'No.1 Player' and am interested in buying."

After waiting for a while, the other party replied: "Four billion dollars!"

Seeing this price, Irving was somewhat speechless.

Calculating it, that meant each Tracing Crystal Stone was priced at two hundred million dollars. Even though doomsday was approaching and currency was starting to devalue, four billion dollars was still not a small amount.

However, after the last transaction with the Angel Guild and selling those previous pieces of equipment, Irving now had twelve billion dollars quietly sitting in his bank account.

Four billion dollars might be an astronomical figure for an ordinary person, but for Irving, it was just a moderately significant sum.

Hesitating for a moment, Irving quickly typed back: "Where did you find so many Tracing Crystal Stones?" Searᴄh the NovelFire.net* website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

This was the main purpose. At least until doomsday truly arrived, he could not let his "No.1 Public Enemy" identity be leaked. Otherwise, a whole heap of trouble would come his way.

After sending the message, there was no reply from the other side for quite some time.

"Five billion dollars. I'll take all of those Tracing Crystal Stones, and you answer my earlier question." Irving replied once more.

"No problem!" This time, the mysterious player responded almost instantly.

It didn't take long for the two of them to agree on the transaction process during their chat. Initially, Irving wanted to complete the transaction through the official system, but the other party refused. Instead, the mysterious player suggested meeting in person for a direct exchange of money and goods.

They scheduled the meeting for the following evening.

After settling this matter, Irving browsed the discussion area for a while but found nothing of value. He then entered the trading zone and typed the keyword: Tracing Crystal Stones...

To give players a general idea of equipment prices, the official system had added a feature for checking past transaction prices.

Successfully traded items in the trading zone would display historical transaction records when searched by keywords.

After hitting the enter key, only three transactions for Tracing Crystal Stones appeared... The first one traded for 19 million dollars, the second for 23 million dollars, and the third for 30 million dollars!

Seeing these three records, Irving's brows furrowed even tighter.

"This means that, aside from private transactions, there have only been three official trades for Tracing Crystal Stones recently..." A cold glint flashed in Irving's deep eyes.

He couldn't understand where the mysterious player had obtained more than twenty Tracing Crystal Stones.

Moreover, judging by the trend in those three transaction amounts, the overall price was rising and had already broken through the 30 million dollars mark. Why would the mysterious player sell them at 20 million dollars each?

He could easily sell them one by one in the trading zone, and at recent prices, they would definitely fetch more than four billion dollars.

Another point of concern was that the mysterious player insisted on an offline transaction...

All these indications made Irving suspicious, but since they had already set a meeting time, he decided to go and take a look. After all, if it were true, those twenty Tracing Crystal Stones falling into the hands of a powerful force like the Hunter Guild would pose a significant threat to him.

Soon, Irving closed the forum.

He glanced at Vicky, who was sleeping soundly on the bed beside him, then got up and went downstairs. He took a few things from a drawer and left the house.

Five minutes later.

In the underground parking lot of the residential complex, a Mercedes-Maybach roared to life and drove away.

Irving headed straight to the bank. His bank card had been frozen due to large fund transfers, and he needed to resolve this issue and withdraw his money.

He didn't want to wait until doomsday arrived and watch his money turn into worthless paper.

The most straightforward solution was to convert it all into gold bars.

Gold bars have an intrinsic currency-like attribute; even after the apocalypse, many transactions could be conducted with gold bars. Moreover, being a rare metal, their value is irreplaceable.

At the bank.

There were very few people handling business. A young woman in a black uniform was idly resting her chin on her hand, looking bored. A metallic nameplate hung in front of her impressive chest, indicating her position and name.

Teller: Daisy...